How Kirkwood produced an IndyCar masterclass in Detroit

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Bryan Herta did not get on the radio to inform his driver of Álex Palou’s race-ending moment on the streets of Detroit.

But best believe Kyle Kirkwood knew.

“I shouldn’t be smiling,” he joked. “But I knew that he crashed and I knew that we needed to capitalise on some points given the outcome for him. I feel bad for him but this also does help us a lot with the points.”

Heading into the seventh round of the campaign, Kirkwood was the only driver to have beaten the newly-crowned Indianapolis 500 winner all season. Aside from his second-place result in Long Beach, Palou had won the other five races.

Seeing a 112-point championship lead after only six races was unquestionably deflating for the competition. But as Palou was inadvertently punted into the Turn 1 tyre barrier by David Malukas on a Lap 73 restart in Detroit, there was a reminder of how quickly things can swing. 

But such has been the scale of his rampant start to the season, Palou still leads Pato O’Ward by 90 points and could likely still afford to fail to finish a further two races. 

“That’s still a mile away,” Kirkwood said of the margin. “But it puts you back in a position where you feel like you might be able to get that back. I’m sure we’re going to go to road courses and Palou is going to do his thing.”

After the Indy 500, Kirkwood’s own deficit to Palou was 150 points. But a masterclass in Detroit saw him win for the second time in 2025 - keeping the pool of winners this year to solely himself and the Spaniard.

The gap now? A still-significant 102 points. But in one 100-lap race, it has been cut by 48 points.

It was not lost on Kirkwood how critical it was to take advantage of his confidence around the streets of the Motor City amid Palou’s demise.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

“Super important but we’ve got to keep doing it,” Kirkwood said. “He can skip out on still a handful more races and be absolutely fine. Unfortunately for him he ended up in the wall but it actually helps us a lot in the championship. 

“We’re not really still in the hunt, I wouldn’t say. But it at least gives you a taste of: ‘Ooh, maybe we can claw back at this,’ which is pretty cool.”

A second win of the season - after only a solitary podium in Toronto in 2024 - matched Kirkwood’s season-best tally in his first season with Andretti Global in 2023. This week more than ever, it was a much-needed boost.

After belief that he was fine-tunings away from being an Indy 500 pole contender, a dramatic loss of speed confined Kirkwood to a disappointing 23rd-place start at the Speedway. He recovered exceptionally to sixth place in the race but was left disappointed that, with a third win-contending race car in as many years, he could not get closer to victory.

It was not to matter, though.

The day after the chequered flag dropped on an intense fortnight in Indianapolis, news emerged that Kirkwood - alongside Andretti teammate Marcus Ericsson, plus PREMA Racing’s Callum Ilott for an unrelated infringement - was to be moved to the rear of the classification due to an illegality on his No.27 machine.

“I’ve gotten every emotion that I’ve ever had in motorsports across the past 10 days, no doubt about it,” Kirkwood admitted. “We had a phenomenal 500 and I got every emotion in the 500 alone.

“We went to the back, we had bad stops at some times, we cycled through, got ourselves back into a good position, had a car that was capable of winning but just didn’t get close enough at the end. [Then] obviously drama through the week.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Albeit having to battle the frustration of a 29-point haul becoming a minimum gathering of five points, Kirkwood did not allow himself to get bogged down by the penalties. 

“Fortunately for me, I just drive the car,” Kirkwood said. “Even after the 500, immediately that night we focus on what is ahead. That’s one of our strong suits, that we’re able to put things behind us very, very quickly and focus on what’s in front of us.

“I’m thankful for the team for that mindset. It paid off [in Detroit] this weekend.”

The formbook showed that Andretti would be in a strong position to rebound in Detroit given their renowned strength on street courses. And with Kirkwood and teammate Colton Herta pacing practice, it became clear it was their weekend to lose.

Herta converted that speed into pole position while Kirkwood was left frustrated with starting third. Hitting the wall during the Fast Six session and damaging a toe link, he was unable to capitalise on what he believed was on course to be a pole-position lap.

“We knew we’d be fast… we were extremely fast.” Kirkwood said. “Threw it away a little bit in qualifying. 

“The track is very difficult to drive. It’s obviously very bumpy. It brings out the worst in you and it brought out the worst in me in qualifying. It’s pretty rare for me to make mistakes and hit the wall anywhere else other than street courses. 

“That was a tough one. And it’s because the track is so hard to drive. But I actually appreciate it in that sense. It allows you to capitalise when you take more risk. There is a lot more reward for the risk that you take.”

Despite getting by second-place starter Malukas at the race start, Kirkwood initially found himself overtaken by Christian Lundgaard and Palou. But with wheel-banging aplenty, it was a relief just to have escaped the start without damage.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

“Colton broke slightly early and Lundgaard broke very, very late and it worked out for him,” Kirkwood recalled of the race start. “I got boxed out on the outside. Fortunately I didn’t push it too hard because I actually would have collided with Lundgaard. It was a hectic start by every point of view but we got through it unscathed… barely.”

Kirkwood matched the aggression of his competitors to fight back past both Palou and Lundgaard within a matter of laps, rising to second and in pursuit of Herta.

“It was some low-percentage moves that I made,” Kirkwood admitted. “But you have to at street courses. Any move you make is low percentage. Fortunately they stuck.”

Kirkwood failed to undercut Herta after ditching the high-degrading alternate tyres on Lap 11. Stopping on Lap 12, Herta was able to emerge with Nolan Siegel - not yet having stopped on the primary tyres - as a pick between himself and Herta. 

But with Herta on cold rubber, Siegel audaciously attacked into Turn 4. Herta narrowly avoided wall contact and lost momentum, allowing an opening for Kirkwood to seize the net lead of the race from his teammate.

No matter the ebbs and flows that followed, Herta never found himself ahead of Kirkwood again.

“I’ll be honest, I think Colton was somewhat robbed of a win,” said Kirkwood graciously. “He’s done everything right this weekend. He got the pole, he led the beginning portion of that race and then he just got caught out on cold tyres. 

“Siegel actually divebombed him into Turn 4 and almost put him into the wall and put him in a really bad spot and I was able to sneak by him. But if it wasn’t for that, he probably would have won the race. That was unfortunate for him. 

“He’s not doing anything wrong. I still look up to him. He’s still the guy that I’m always trying to catch up to. Of course we have had a couple of wins but he’s doing everything right. Some stars just need to align for him a little bit better.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

There remains the intriguing dynamic of Colton’s father Bryan being strategist for Kirkwood. But that never jeopardises Kirkwood. 

“Bryan actually wants to beat his son a lot of times,” Kirkwood laughed. “And Colton is very solidified in the series. Of course Bryan wants to see his son win but he also wants to see the car that he’s on win. There’s no conflict of interest whatsoever.”

While a secondary strategy emerged among some of the upper-mid-pack starters, that alternate approach quickly petered out and Kirkwood remained in control of the race.

The opening caution on Lap 14 fell fortuitously for Will Power, who timed his opening pit stop perfectly to jump into second between Kirkwood and Herta. But Kirkwood was in the captain’s seat until the third yellow period on Lap 67.

With little over 30 laps remaining, Santino Ferrucci, Kyffin Simpson and Marcus Armstrong had gambled on earlier final stops of the race. And with the stoppage for Callum Ilott’s crash falling within the leaders’ pit window, the trio who had already made their last stop were able to cycle to the front.

And this was no alternate strategy. The unlikely triumvirate led legitimately. Through no fault of his own, Kirkwood’s lead had been snatched. Doubt crept in.

“You never want to see yourself lose positions because somebody got lucky on something and that’s exactly what happened for the three guys that were in front of me,” Kirkwood said. “Of course I was like: ‘Man, this probably just ruined our race here.’ Fortunately it didn’t.”

The caution for Palou’s incident followed immediately. And while seeing the runaway championship leader in the tyre barrier did not change Kirkwood’s focus, he knew even more so that a victory would be a major boost.

He was acutely aware he had to keep it clean but also throw some caution to the wind to get back to the front.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

“Fortunately we were able to get back by them but we had to pass cars, which is a hard thing to do in IndyCar,” Kirkwood explained. “We haven’t seen a lot of that on street courses and road courses and we saw the most passing we’ve seen all season. 

“I did doubt at some point. It went away when I started passing cars and we were able to get ourselves back in the lead.”

Kirkwood maintained composure and what followed on the Lap 75 restart was an inspired charge. Within three laps, Kirkwood had dispatched of Armstrong, Simpson and Ferrucci to retake the lead.

And unlike some high-risk early-race moves, these passes were made with relative ease.

“I couldn’t tell you why but our pace on restarts was phenomenal,” Kirkwood observed. “I knew because of that I had to get by everyone that was in front of me within the first five laps.

“The thought process around it was take these guys off when opportunities arise. But opportunities came much quicker than I anticipated and we were able to get them pretty quickly and then get ourselves back into the lead. It worked out really well.”

The run to Turn 3 - down a 0.7-mile straight - was the scene of Kirkwood’s trio of clinical, race-winning overtakes. 

“I had to overtake everyone in different manners,” he explained. “It was all in the same place but it all felt a little bit different in a way. The Armstrong pass I actually popped early to put him in a spot that he couldn’t defend and it worked out really well. 

“I don’t know where Santino was on downforce, but he was also easy to get around in the straight and get back in front of him and defend going down into Turn 3. Pretty simple passes in street course form. Not much of a lunge. 

“I had a lot of big lunges early on in the race because I was pretty upset that I lost positions in the start. But they all worked out.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Kirkwood did misjudge pulling out from behind Simpson on the long run to Turn 3 as he took second place, resulting in some front wing contact. The No.27’s nose was notably wobbling a little throughout the closing phase of the race but it proved nothing more than a blemish.

“I was popping a little bit too tight to him and either the bumps pushed me into him or him into me,” Kirkwood recalled. “I’m not sure exactly what happened. It wasn’t his fault at all but broke the left front main plane.

“It really didn’t affect the car at all, though. Our performance was still really good. I might have picked up a little bit of understeer from it and probably lost some downforce but it wasn’t really enough to affect the car.”

Kirkwood’s advantage was distinguished by the late-race red flag as a suspension failure for Louis Foster caused heavy contact with Felix Rosenqvist - both emerging unharmed - and resulted in a sizable clean-up. 

But the Floridian controlled the restart expertly and came home comfortable victor by over 3.5 seconds ahead of Ferrucci, who impressively held onto second, and Herta.

“Massive… huge day for Andretti and the No.27 car,” Kirkwood described. “We’ve had a hell of a couple weeks. This is an exclamation point on everything that we’ve done. Andretti is phenomenal at street courses and it’s so good to capitalise on it. 

“I felt pretty robbed of a couple wins here the past couple years where I felt like we definitely should have won and we had pace on everyone. Finally this year we were able to get it done - not from lack of challenge.

“Anything less than a win would have been a disappointment this weekend. I was doing everything in my power to make sure we got that win. It’s rare that you get weekends like this in IndyCar, where you feel like you have a car that is 100 percent capable of winning in every situation that you have. 

“You don’t want them to go to waste. I made sure that that was not the case.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Another street course victory extends Kirkwood’s 100 percent record of victories coming on street courses, adding to his pair of Long Beach wins and Nashville success in 2023.

What meshes so well on street courses for him? Even Kirkwood does not know.

“I wish I knew,” he said. “I wish I could take whatever that was and bring it to other places. I’ve got to put a lot back on Andretti because they’ve always been really good at all the street courses that we go to. That’s where we tend to be dominant.

“I wish I knew why or how or if it does translate to other places because weekends like this are what we need to win a championship.”

If he is to gain more ground from third in the standings, Kirkwood knows he cannot afford to watch Palou win any more races. Regardless, while lost a little in the splendour of Palou’s magic, it is proving a coming-of-age year for one of the IndyCar ladder’s finest talents.

“[To] get all of that positivity back and put an exclamation point on everything that has happened, that’s motor racing for you,” Kirkwood said. “You get all the emotions. You get the highs. You get the lows. That’s what we live for. 

“We live for the highs but we also enjoy the lows when you look back at it because it makes the highs even that much sweeter.”